Charlie Brown's baseball team
Arguably, the biggest running gag in Peanuts is the neighborhood's dysfunctional baseball team, managed by Charlie Brown. History Charlie Brown is the manager of this team and, usually, its pitcher, with other characters of the strip comprising the rest of the team. Charlie Brown is a terrible pitcher, and his efforts often giving up tremendous hits which tend to knock him off the mound, leaving him with only his shorts on. However, he shows up for every game with very rare exceptions, and stays even when it starts raining causing everyone else on the team to go home. The rest of the team is also poor. It includes Lucy as the right fielder, who might just be the worst player in all of baseball. She almost always misses very easy catches before giving Charlie Brown a lame excuse as to why she missed it (But in the TV special It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown, and a series of strips from March 1972, she manages to hit a home run after Schroeder agrees to kiss her if she does so). The team also includes Snoopy as the shortstop, who tends to fall asleep during the game; in at least one strip, a claim is made that he cannot throw, although he can catch the ball rather well using his mouth. The catcher, Schroeder, doesn't know how to throw, and he hides this inability by having something to say to Charlie Brown when walking to the pitchers mound to give the ball back. Although Charlie Brown was seen catching a ball from the direction of home plate in the comic strip on May 9, 1973, Schroeder is never seen throwing the ball back. Every time that "Pig-Pen" hits a ball he is unable to run as the air is to dirty. Linus has untied shoelaces and bumps every time he runs. Frieda, Violet, 5, Shermy and Patty are terrible at catching. The ball almost always falls on the middle of them. Rerun who played on one occasion, gave the victory to other team. Sally, Eudora and Roy always make excuses for leaving the team. Woodstock and his friends can't use the baseball bat. Because of this poor team, it consistently loses. This is exaggerated when Peppermint Patty, as a temporary member, hit five home runs and pitched a no-hitter, but the team still lost 37–5. Another time, Charlie Brown admits losing twenty games in a season. The worst game Charlie Brown ever played was when he and his team lost six hundred to nothing against another team. The very next day the newspaper published the score and called Charlie Brown and his team hapless. However, while the team is often referred to as "win-less", it does win at least 10 games over the course of the strip's run, most of these when Charlie Brown is not playing, a fact that Charlie Brown finds highly dispiriting. In one comic strip both Charlie Brown and Snoopy are chasing a high flying ball-which comes down into Charlie's glove and drops out, only to be caught by Snoopy. Apparently the team wins the game, as the last panel shows the team holding Snoopy aloft in triumph while Charlie Brown is ostracized. This is in keeping with the general poor treatment Charlie Brown gets as the team blames all their failures on him. No matter how many times their team loses, Charlie Brown remains optimistic at the start of each season, and always says his team is one away from the championship. Wins Although the team is always referred to as "win-less", even by Charlie Brown sometimes, the team has won a few games over the years, mostly when Charlie Brown is not there. Their wins are as follows: *April 26, 1958: It is the first game of the season, and Charlie Brown ends up in bed sick. After the game, Charlie Brown's team comes into his room, and tell him, "We didn't do anything you told us. In fact, we didn't even miss you!" And as a result, the team wins the game. *March 19, 1964: Charlie Brown is diagnosed with "Little leaguer's elbow" after his arm becomes sore from erratic pitching, and has to stop pitching to allow it to heal. As a result, Linus substitutes for him as pitcher, and, as revealed by Lucy, the team doesn't lose a single game following Charlie Brown's resignation. *June 10, 1965: Charlie Brown has been shipped off to summer camp, when he receives a letter from Linus that says, "I suppose you are worried about your baseball team. Well, don't worry... we're doing fine... in fact, yesterday we won the first game we've won all season." *August 5, 1966: Charlie Brown is hit on the head with a line drive, and has to sit on the bench. After the game, Lucy comes over to brag that the team won. *August 1, 1967: Upset with his team's poor performance, Charlie brown decides to go home and lie in a darkened room in the strip from July 28, 1967. In his absence, his team wins a few days later. *August 16, 1968: Charlie Brown gets very nervous when he notices the Little Red-Haired Girl in the stands. He shakes too much to be able to pitch, so Linus has to take over. After the team wins, the Little Red-Haired Girl runs over and hugs Linus. *April 22, 1969: When Peppermint Patty's team is unable to show up, they forfeit the game, giving Charlie Brown's team a win. *April 23, 1969: Five of Franklin's team members are unable to make it, so the game is forfeited, letting Charlie Brown win again. *In April 1973, Lucy convinces a reluctant Charlie Brown to let her infant brother Rerun join the team. Due to the opposing pitcher's inability to pitch to Rerun, the team scores a rare victory. The win is eventually stripped from the team by the little league president, as Rerun had gambled a nickel on the game with Snoopy. Rerun's excuse is that he was new to the world, and did not know gambling was wrong. Apart from the forfeits, all of these wins happen when Charlie Brown is not there. However, Charlie Brown leads his team to victory on two occasions. *March 30, 1993, Hitting against Royanne Hobbs, Charlie Brown hits his first home run, and wins the game for his team. *June 29, 1993: Once again, up against Royanne Hobbs, and Charlie Brown hits a home run and wins the game for his team. Royanne Hobbs later admits that she let him hit the home run, leaving Charlie Brown feeling crushed. The team also have victories in two TV specials, It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown and It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown. In the movie Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!!) before Charlie Brown Linus van Pelt Peppermint Patty Marcie Snoopy and Woodstock leave for London and France, Charlie Brown tells Schroeder to take care of the ball field while he is abroad. Sally later tells Charlie Brown that, while he was away, his team won three games in a row. Players The team's roster has has a strange, but diverse, set of players. Charlie Brown has mentioned this a few times. The players are as follows: *Manager/Pitcher: Charlie Brown (Linus has played as pitcher on occasion, Peppermint Patty has held both roles twice, and Snoopy is manager for one story) *Catcher: Schroeder (Lucy holds the position briefly in one story) *First base: Shermy *Second base: Linus *Third base: "Pig-Pen" (or 5) *Shortstop/Groundskeeper: Snoopy (only beagle on team) *Right field: Lucy. (One brief scene in a daily comic strip shows "5" as also playing in right field; Marcie does so briefly after a player trade) *Center field: Patty and Frieda *Left field: Violet *Statistician: Linus *Assistant groundskeepers/Various players: Woodstock and his friends *Various players/Spectators: Eudora, Roy, Rerun, Sally, and Lucy's mother and grandmother. Other teams Most of the time, the other team is not shown. The only other teams that are known are Peppermint Patty's team, which include Peppermint Patty, Marcie (who might be just as bad as Lucy), Franklin, Thibault, and José Peterson. Another known team is Royanne Hobbs' team. Royanne Hobbs' team has appeared while they were playing. Category:Recurring themes Category:Baseball Baseball Category:Linus van Pelt Category:Schroeder Category:Shermy Category:"Pig-Pen" Category:555 95472 Category:Snoopy Category:Frieda Category:Violet Gray Category:Woodstock Category:Eudora Category:Roy Category:Rerun van Pelt Category:Sally Brown Category:Peppermint Patty Category:Marcie Category:Franklin Category:Thibault Category:José Peterson Category:Lucy van Pelt